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Crofthead Limestone Workings

Kilwinning, S of Monkredding House, Crofthead, Ayrshire.

Quarry, Mine. (Location cited as NS 318 447). Limestone worked extensively (20 acres, pillar & room). Artefacts found such as hutch (with solid wheels), tram rails, later flanged railway-type wheel, drills, clay pipes, tallow candles & so on. Drains into Threadmill Burn 'across road' [c. NS 319 449].

Goldcraig Mine on first edition Ordnance Survey map 25-inch map (Ayrshire, 1857). Also 'Old Limekiln' at NS 32122 44987, bank of 2 limekilns (NS 31920 44813 & NS 31915 44803) & 'Old Shaft' at NS 31873 44791. Mineral railway running from NS 31901 44828 to 32032 44896. By 1897 (second edition Ordnance Survey map 25-inch map, Ayrshire, 1897), mine & quarry disused. 'Old Shaft' at NS 31953 44831.

Information from RCAHMS (MMD) 20 August 2008.

Monkredding Quarry, with associated smithy & railway, freestone quarry with associated hamlet, limestone & coal pits; shown on OS 6-inch (150 mm) map. Inspector of Mines' Report 1874 lists Monkredding amongst 12 operating mines in Irvine area.

Goldcraig Quarry immediately north of Crofthead (NS 32500 44500).

Low escarpment or quarry face from NS 31720 44653 to NS 32151 45041 along the south side of the B778 on the opposite side from and parallel to the Threadmill Burn. Access road to Hullerhill Sand Quarry cuts through the north end.

Alternate Names: Sevenacres Quarry, Monkredding Quarry, Goldcraig Quarry

Notes: Hullerhill Sand Quarry covers a larger area to the northeast of Crofthead.

A narrow band of Index Limestone exposed along the quarry face represents sedimentary bedrock, from shallow carbonate seas. These sedimentary rocks are shallow-marine in origin, the remains of coral and shell fragments, forming beds and locally reefs. They lie below a shallow surface layer of Upper Limestone Formation, sedimentary rocks of fluvial, palustrine and shallow-marine in origin, forming deposits reflecting the channels, floodplains and deltas of a river in a coastal setting (with periodic inundation from the sea). Below the Index Limestone are deeper deposits of Limestone Coal Formation of the Clackmannan Group type.

Crofthead mine appears to have extracted the Index Limestone while Hullerhill Quarry extracts the lower Limestone Coal Formation.

See als Seven Acres Mill Bauxite Mine.